Proposed refuge expansion tough sell to S.J. ag interests

Monday

Nov 26, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Expanding the world's largest network of wildlife refuges into San Joaquin County would attract rare and beautiful migratory birds, open up new boating and fishing opportunities, and reduce flood risk in urban areas, federal officials say in a new report.

Alex Breitler

Expanding the world's largest network of wildlife refuges into San Joaquin County would attract rare and beautiful migratory birds, open up new boating and fishing opportunities, and reduce flood risk in urban areas, federal officials say in a new report.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says enlarging the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge is a "unique" opportunity to restore a major corridor of wildlife habitat along the second largest stream in California, and triple the number of refuge visitors in the process.

Its plan, however, has already faced criticism here. San Joaquin County supervisors voted last year to oppose the expansion before it had been formally proposed.

Now that proposal is on the streets, and the executive director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation said the federal government does not appear to have addressed local officials' concerns.

"You would think they would listen to county supervisors, but they didn't," bureau director Bruce Blodgett said. "It's obvious the public input process isn't what it used to be."

Ninety-five percent of the jungle-like forests that once buffered Central Valley streams have been lost to urban and agricultural development. The remaining patches of forest are small, spread out and vulnerable.

The existing San Joaquin River refuge west of Modesto was established in 1987 and became instrumental in the recovery of the once-threatened Aleutian cackling goose.

The plan is to expand that refuge both to the north and to the south, enlarging it from 12,887 acres to 35,043 acres.

While Fish and Wildlife originally studied expanding the refuge north past Interstate 5 to Lathrop, the formal proposal excludes that northernmost urban section. Instead, the refuge would terminate just south of Mossdale, though it will also include Paradise Cut, which flows to the Delta.

The government would buy land from willing sellers over a period of many years, slowly restoring it to a natural state.

It could take almost half a century, the proposal said, to acquire just half of the land within the refuge boundaries. Some of it may never be sold.

Landowners will have no obligation even to talk with Fish and Wildlife, the proposal said.

But Blodgett argues the mere presence of the federal government will "cast a cloud" over property values. Depending on how many landowners agree to sell, crops would be taken out of production and local property tax revenue would be lost.

And this could be just the beginning, he warned.

"Just look at their past history," he said. "In five or 10 years they're looking to expand again. The last thing we need is them trying to build a bigger empire in San Joaquin County, because that's all they're doing. It's all they know: expansion and acquisition."

Crops within the expansion area are worth about $24.5 million a year, less than 1 percent of the total agricultural output of the three counties affected - San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced, the plan said.

San Joaquin alone would stand to lose almost $400,000 a year in property tax. Federal law allows for some compensation, but that money often falls short, the government acknowledges.

On the other hand, thousands of new refuge visitors patronize local businesses, and more workers would be needed to replant the forests and maintain them, the plan said.

It concludes that the economic effects of the expansion are "complex and speculative."

There is more than economics at stake, however. Fish and Wildlife says a larger refuge could help prevent devastating downstream floods by allowing the San Joaquin to spread out over riparian flood plains.

As far as public use, future plans call for new facilities including a boat launch, as well as a recreational hunting program, though these opportunities will be "limited" because of all the nearby farmland.

Expanding the refuge could bring back endangered least Bell's vireos, a popular songbird that briefly returned to the San Joaquin River in 2005 after a 50-year absence in the Valley.

But it's not just birds that will benefit. Trees will cool the water for steelhead and salmon. And the river refuge is home to the world's largest population of riparian brush rabbits - the county's cuddliest wild animal - as well as rare woodrats that live in communities of "houses" built of sticks and bark.

Stockton conservationist Jeremy Terhune, head of the group Friends of the Lower Calaveras River, said he feels the good of the project outweighs any perceived bad. Now, with the proposal in hand, is the time to discuss expanding the refuge, he said.

"It means jobs," Terhune said. "It means outdoor recreational opportunities. It means habitat for birds, which are having a hard enough time as it is. Everybody benefits."